Inter-Atalanta: Scamacca’s assist to the opponents

Who knows how it would have ended if Gianluca Scamacca had said yes to Inter last August. Now that the ranking has a certain face and that Inzaghi’s team has set records, everyone in Viale della Liberazione and at Pinetina is wondering. When the West Ham striker preferred to sign for Atalanta last summer, saying no to a transfer to Inter, many seemed worried about the direction the search for Lukaku’s replacement had taken. Morata had an important salary and Atletico did not intend to let go of him at a bargain price, Taremi was difficult to sign due to the financial demands of his entourage. For this reason Scamacca seemed to be the right solution, but it vanished when the attacker chose the Bergamo solution. In retrospect, the former Sassuolo player’s decision turned out to be fortunate for Inter. Not so much because whoever arrived in his place is scoring consistently, but because the money saved was used to sign Pavard, a fundamental element for the balance of Inzaghi’s team. With Scamacca in the Nerazzurri, there would have been no margin to bring Benji to Pinetina.

NO TO AUCTIONS

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A few months later, perhaps someone has forgotten the summer difficulties resulting from Lukaku’s about-face and the hunt for his replacement which was certainly not over when the free transfer Thuram was taken from Milan. Inter needed another strong number 9 and, after understanding that Taremi and Morata would have been two complicated solutions (for different reasons) to materialise, Marotta, Ausilio and Baccin had turned to Scamacca, who had already been negotiated twelve months earlier , when he still wore the Sassuolo shirt and, in Viale della Liberazione, was considered “the national team’s center forward of the future”. It seemed that the operation was going downhill because the Roman had given his green light to the transfer to Milan, where he would also find his friend Frattesi, but the inclusion of Atalanta changed the cards on the table: Gasperini’s tactical project convinced the striker and the Zhang family club preferred not to raise in the face of the 25 million plus 5 million bonus proposal presented by Pagliuca and the Percassi, thanks to the liquidity obtained from the sale of Hoijlund to Manchester United. Scamacca thus ended up in Bergamo and Inter remodeled its plan: since in the meantime Thuram was giving interesting answers in the pre-season, the management’s choice was to “save” something in the choice of the first striker (the choice fell on Arnautovic) to invest heavily in a scorer on the right of the three-man defense or Skriniar’s replacement. The latter role had been filled with Azpilicueta, but the former Chelsea Spaniard had backed out a couple of weeks after reaching a two-year agreement with Inter citing family reasons (his wife preferred to return to Madrid).

PAVARD THE IDEAL

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Ausilio never stopped working on the Pavard operation, not even when he was told in June-July that it was untransferable. For some time he had considered him the ideal reinforcement for his versatility and his football intelligence. A little outside and a little central, he had everything to make Skriniar forget. Scamacca’s no pushed the Nerazzurri managers to concentrate their attention on Marko Arnautovic, a decidedly lower cost deal compared to the other first strikers negotiated, and to invest the millions left over from the Onana deal, sold to United. The Germans, with whom the purchase of Sommer had already been final, did not give up easily but in the end the decisive factor was the will of the Frenchman who pushed to leave Tuchel’s court and move to Pinetina. He knew that Kim’s arrival in Bavaria would reduce his chances of playing and, in the year of the European Championships, he was convinced both by the project that Inzaghi had for him and by the appeal of a team fresh from the Champions League final. Pavard landed in Milan at the end of August, certainly not at a bargain price (30 million plus 3 in bonuses), but he gave a tactical turning point to the Nerazzurri team. More than (probably) Scamacca would have done.

ADDITIONAL ATTACKER

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Marco Parolo, someone who knows Inzaghi well after the years spent together in the capital, made it clear to Dazn how crucial the former Bayern player is in the ex-Lazio coach’s board: “Pavard is the perfect synthesis of Darmian and Skriniar. The latter last year before the injury he gave solidity to the defense, but when it came to carrying the ball, he had difficulty. After the Slovakian’s injury, Darmian was ready and his exits with the ball at his feet from behind were Pavard, however, is perfect for this role, the ideal synthesis between Skriniar and Darmian, because he defends well, has the right timing of insertion, enters the pitch and reaches the opponent’s area ‘reading’ how the opponents press. Well done Inzaghi to develop this type of game, but certainly with Pavard he has a key element that allows him to put it into practice.” Maybe tomorrow evening Scamacca and Pavard will meet on the pitch because the Frenchman was spared in Lecce precisely to have him at the top against the Goddess. There will be sparks with the Atalanta center forward, although, regardless of how it ends, the Inter fans, Inzaghi and the management have no doubts about which operation was the right one to conclude. This time he also thanks to a hand from fate. Because if Scamacca had said yes…